KeyNöst I, Done 6. Sep 2021

Submitted by Nalle Berg on Fri, 06/11/2021 - 14:00

This is a first! This time I wanted to get some more taste into the cheese. I looked up some recipes for the Norwegian «Nøkkelost». It was a point for me in the beginning to try and make that type of cheese. I just love it, but it is an expensive cheese, so part of the whole plan of making cheese is to make the cheeses I can save money making or that is hard to find.

The first thing I did was to measure up the spices (1 ts cloves, 3 ts caraway seed), gently crush them in a mortar, and add them into the kettle first.

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The milk was heated to 30°C

It went through all the things it should do with resting 45 minutes for curding.

After cutting the curd, I wondered if all the spices was on top, so before I started stirring in it, I checked just that. It was not a problem, there were spices all the way down.

I changed the recipe before this cheese from 5 l milk and 6 dl cream to 5 l milk and 3 dl cream. Now it looks as if I've found the right amount, for now it's full but I had no problem closing it and getting it under press.

Just out of the press and I haven't even removed the cheese cloth around it yet. It did get removed and it was then ready for salting.

Around the edges on the cheese, where the lid of the press meets the bottom, there tends to be an edge that is thin and sticking out on the sides. I cut away that before I dry the surface 

This is the front of the cheese while drying. I have got a wooden cheese drying mat to put it on this time as I have had a problem with it getting marks from the metal one. No marks anymore!

If you look at it from the backside, you can see that the spices are OK distributed in the cheese. 
 

Here it is! Ready for aging. However, when I made the cheese, I thought it would age in the same time as my Nöst normal, but it turns out this cheese needs some more time. A month longer, so this cheese is not ready August 6th but September 6th.

  

 

 

And as always: Have a cheesy day!